Iberdrola starts plugging in 590-MW Francisco Pizarro solar farm in Spain

Spanish utility Iberdrola SA (BME:IBE) announced today that it has started commissioning its 590-MW Francisco Pizarro solar farm in the region of Extremadura, western Spain.

Equipped with close to 1.5 million PV panels capable of powering over 334,000 households, Francisco Pizarro has become Europe’s largest solar farm, taking that title from Iberdrola’s 500-MW Nunez de Balboa plant that is operating in the same region.

Iberdrola said it had invested over EUR 300 million (USD 306.7m) in the mega-project. Francisco Pizarro will earn revenues on the back of long-term corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Bayer AG (ETR:BAYN), Danone SA (EPA:BN) and PepsiCo Inc (NASDAQ:PEP), which procured some of the solar output for their factories and facilities in Spain.

During construction, Iberdrola’s team uncovered several artifacts dating from the ancient and medieval eras, and implemented environmental protection programmes for controlled rabbit breeding and bird nesting and feeding. In addition, land around the panels will be used for sheep grazing, the utility said.

In Spain, Iberdrola boasts over 19,300 MW of installed renewables capacity, and has an investment plan to reach 25,000 MW in the coming years, it added.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.022)

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